Dallas Cowboys' Tony Romo sits on the bench in the first half of an NFL football game against the Detroit Lions on Monday, Dec. 26, 2016, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Brandon Wade)

Dallas Cowboys' Tony Romo sits on the bench in the first half of an NFL football game against the Detroit Lions on Monday, Dec. 26, 2016, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Brandon Wade)

Photo: Brandon Wade, FRE

How do Patriots keep winning the NFL offseason?

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It has been a little more than a month since the New England Patriots won their fifth Super Bowl title with Bill Belichick as their coach and Tom Brady as their quarterback. Belichick, despite the "No Days Off!" chant that he led (or at least attempted to lead) at the team's victory celebration, has been spotted taking some down time here and there, playing golf at Pebble Beach and nearly being barreled over by LeBron James while sitting courtside.

And oh, by the way, he also has found time to make the Patriots even better.

The champs have done very well since the NFL's free agent and trade markets opened a week ago. The Patriots signed cornerback Stephon Gilmore, formerly of Buffalo, in free agency and they traded for Indianapolis tight end Dwayne Allen, Carolina defensive end Kony Ealy and New Orleans wide receiver Brandin Cooks.

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It isn't quite time to award the Lombardi Trophy to the Patriots for this coming season. Not yet. But the moves should ensure that the Patriots remain solidly in championship contention throughout the 2017 season, in which Brady will be 40.

Cooks is a very good wideout coming off consecutive 1,100-yard receiving seasons with the Saints. He totaled 17 touchdown catches over that span, and he makes the New England offense even more varied and even more explosive. The cost was not prohibitive, as the Patriots surrendered the final pick of the draft's opening round, in addition to swapping a third-rounder for a Saints' fourth-rounder.

The Patriots did not have to include cornerback Malcolm Butler in the Cooks trade - which was thought to be likely at one point - but he's yet to sign his first-round tender. Butler still could leave via restricted free agency if another team signs him to an offer sheet. If not, the Patriots can pair Butler with Gilmore, a Pro Bowl selection this past season. A good defense gets better, even more so with Ealy on hand to bolster the pass rush a bit. The Patriots on Wednesday re-signed linebacker Dont'a Hightower, who made the game-turning play in the Super Bowl with his sack and strip of Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan, but was being wooed by the New York Jets and Pittsburgh Steelers.

Allen's arrival offsets the free agent departure of Martellus Bennett. Brady again should have two capable pass-catchers at tight end, assuming that Rob Gronkowski returns for a healthy 2017 season.

The trades have left the Patriots without any picks before the third round of the draft. A Butler deal could change that. Or if Belichick considers it a problem, he easily could remedy it by trading backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo to Cleveland. The Browns possess the first and 12th overall selections in the draft and seem willing to part with the 12th choice as part of a package for Garoppolo.

It is an interesting decision for the Patriots, who could maximize their chances of winning another Brady-led Super Bowl by dealing Garoppolo. But that means trusting that Jacoby Brissett, coming off his rookie season, is ready to be Brady's primary backup and perhaps his successor-in-waiting.

Either way, the Patriots are primed to enter the 2017 season as a strong, leaguewide Super Bowl favorite.

Osweiler vs. Haynesworth

Houston’s trade Thursday of quarterback Brock Osweiler to Cleveland, one year after the Texans signed him to an $18 million-per-season contract, qualifies the Osweiler signing as one of the worst free agent deals in NFL history.

The benchmark, in the minds of many, is the Washington’s signing of defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth. Haynesworth lasted only two seasons and 20 games with Washington and never resembled the dominant player he’d been with the Tennessee Titans, drawing accusations of a lack of on-field effort.

The Osweiler signing might be even worse, however. The Texans, in effect, had to include a second-round draft choice in 2018 in last week’s trade (along with a reshuffling of other picks) just to convince the Browns to take Osweiler’s cumbersome contract off their hands. Osweiler probably does not figure into the Browns’ plans, even with their dire need at quarterback, and reportedly could be released if he’s not traded again.

The Texans have left themselves with the unproven Tom Savage at quarterback and the hope of landing Tony Romo.If you want to call the Osweiler signing by the Texans the most ill-fated free agent move ever, there probably wouldn’t be any argument here.

Romo and Jerry

Tony Romo is fortunate that he has such a good relationship with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

Think how long he'd have to wait to be released if the two didn't get along so well.

Even so, Romo can't be faulted for being a bit miffed at this point. He didn't have to handle his demotion in favor of rookie Dak Prescott so graciously this past season. He could have come back from his injury and demanded his job. He would have been wrong. But he wouldn't have been the first NFL player to have handled things that way.

Romo didn't do that. He did right by Prescott, the Cowboys and Jones. Now it's Jones's turn, and there was every indication as of last Wednesday that Jones would put Romo fully in charge of picking his next team by releasing the four-time Pro Bowl selection Thursday.

It didn't happen. And it hasn't happened yet. Jones must have suspected there was a chance of trading Romo to the Texans or Denver, especially after Houston traded Brock Osweiler and there was talk of the possibility of the Broncos trading third-year quarterback Trevor Siemian to the Jets.

The Texans and Broncos, however, have held firm to their positions that they won't give up anything in a trade to get Romo, at least so far. So a bit of a standoff has resulted. Jones is perfectly within his rights to do what he's doing. But after the way Romo carried himself this past season, Jones really should make a decision soon.

Guard the vault

An executive with one team asked at the scouting combine, "Did you ever think we'd see the day when guards would be making $12 million a year?"

The day has come.

Kevin Zeitler agreed to a five-year, $60 million contract with the Browns. It was $35 million over four years for Ronald Leary with the Broncos; $34 million over four years for Larry Warford with the Saints; and $28.5 million over three years for T.J. Lang with the Detroit Lions.

Teams such as the Cowboys and Raiders have shown what can be accomplished by devoting meaningful resources to fortifying the offensive line. And now it's not only offensive tackles who are cashing in.

Raiders-to-Vegas vote

The on-again, off-again Raiders-to-Vegas deal is back on, and a person familiar with the situation said last week that the joint NFL committee (a combination of the owners' finance and stadium committees) is inclined to recommend that the owners vote later this month in Phoenix at the annual league meeting on the proposed relocation. The move must be ratified by at least 24 of 32 teams.

Anything can happen in these situations. The outcome usually is decided via last-second, backroom maneuvering, and the owners do not always follow recommendations. Look no further than the NFL's return to Los Angeles, when they ignored the L.A. committee's recommendation of the joint stadium project by the Raiders and Chargers in Carson, California, and chose the Inglewood proposal by Rams owner Stan Kroenke.

But indications are that the Raiders' move to Las Vegas probably will generate the 24 votes that it needs. Not all owners are thrilled about it, based on conversations with people familiar with the league's inner workings.

The bottom line, it seems, is that the league and the owners don't believe there is a viable deal on the table in Oakland, and they are not likely to pass up the public funding approved for a stadium in Vegas.

Washington wackiness

Who would work for Washington? How many times has that been said over the past decade or two?

It is being said again after last week's firing of Scot McCloughan as the team's general manager. The team ushered in the new league year and the opening of free agency with an ugly public spat and dismissal of its GM.

Is this the low point of the team's tumultuous times? That's difficult to say. It seemed like the low point when Norv Turner was fired as the team's coach with three games left in the 1999 season preceded by the free agent arrivals of Deion Sanders, Bruce Smith, Mark Carrier and Jeff George. It seemed like the low point when Marty Schottenheimer was ousted after one season. Ditto for the craziness with Jim Zorn and the contentious ending of the Mike Shanahan era.

But Washington always have been able to pay enough and promise enough to make the next hire, and they will do so again. The real issue here is how much authority the next general manager will have under Bruce Allen, the team president.

"It seems pretty clear to everyone that Bruce intends to be the GM," one person with connections to a potential candidate said last week. "But they'll give someone else the title."